Classic Trading Spaces: 2001-2008 Seasons Discussion

[Wings]

Just watched 2 more horrors.  Doug did a brown room with banquette with varying shades of lavender pillows.   Edward a Moroccan dining room.  Both were grim.   I remember now that we really didn't see many descent rooms.  

[penbrat]

15 hours ago, Wings said:

Just watched 2 more horrors.  Doug did a brown room with banquette with varying shades of lavender pillows.   Edward a Moroccan dining room.  Both were grim.   I remember now that we really didn't see many descent rooms.  

That dining room of Edward's was awful.  

[Wings]

24 minutes ago, penbrat said:

That dining room of Edward's was awful.  

I don't remember liking anything he did.  Putting a little black roll of fabric where the wall meets the ceiling was particularly hideous.  

[athousandclowns]

Anyone catching the " extras" ? I'm watching on demand and they are 5 minutes or more of timeless styles,  fails and favorites of the designers. I forgot/ don't recall Clinton Kelly being on ( must have been on as they are asking him trivia questions.) My gosh the stenciling and  get the faux painting ugh!!! I didn't realize high 5ing  had been going on for 17 years either. 

[Wings]

I continue to be shocked at all the dark or intense bright wall colors.  Was that really in style back then? It wasn’t with me personally and I don’t remember friends doing this either.   I am watching Frank with a kitchen and Doug some room both using intense yellow, orange and reds.  Ugh.  I have yet to see the result. 

 Now I have.  Doug’s sunroom was pretty good.  Frank’s kitchen oh hell no.  I wonder if he has moved on  from faux finishes and hand painting stuff. 

[gorgy]

1 hour ago, Wings said:

I continue to be shocked at all the dark or intense bright wall colors.  Was that really in style back then? It wasn’t with me personally and I don’t remember friends doing this either.   I am watching Frank with a kitchen and Doug some room both using intense yellow, orange and reds.  Ugh.  I have yet to see the result. 

 Now I have.  Doug’s sunroom was pretty good.  Frank’s kitchen oh hell no.  I wonder if he has moved on  from faux finishes and hand painting stuff. 

Nah. While being good for tv, I think part of original appeal of the show was seeing these bold paint colors and faux finishes and letting viewers think about trying it themselves, but in the end people mostly played it safe. I’d say the show’s main takeaways were popularizing the concept of accent walls and those celery green paints Laurie used all the time. It was a safe color but wasn’t the off-white/creams most homes across America were covered in.

[txhorns79]

I watched the episode where Genevieve did a bedroom, while Frank tried to update a 70s era kitchen.  I thought Genevieve did a wonderful job.  They made the homeowner a wooden headboard that look incredible, and the bedroom looked nice.  Frank's kitchen was another story.  He painted the walls in a nice warm color, but rather than replacing the linoleum floor, he painted it brown with white lines to make it appear the floor was tiled, and tried to put painted on "stones" on the counters and back splash.  All I can say is if the kitchen was a high traffic area, Frank's painted floor was going to wear away quickly and look ridiculous, and the curtains they chose for the large kitchen window were just awful.  On the positive side, the homeowner appeared to just love Frank.         

[Wings]

Yes @txhorns79 that was grim and will be a mess in less than 30 days.  

Frank almost did a good bedroom but his penchant for wavy lines did it in.  Purple tray ceiling with olive green.  Not great but could have been better without the wavy white line on the olive green part.  groan  He did some really good modern art on the walls that saved it. 

He said to Paige in the final chat, I think this looks too gallery.  He meant that his art was clean, tailored and abstract.  That part looked fabulous.  Paige replied, ohh, I like it!  

Nothing can look 'too gallery' for me.  If you see interior decorators personal homes, they would be called gallery.  It is my preference. 

Edited May 1, 2018 by Wings

[Wings]

They keep repeating the same re runs. They have years of episodes. Air ones we have not seen recently, we don't want the same 5 in a loop. 

Just watched another Frank disaster.  Paige didn't like the floor and Frank said this is real life, not page 47 in a decorating magazine.  No shit. Hideous kitchen. 

I sound like such a bitch.  Just wait until Laurie sashays into my rifle cite.  KABOOM!    LOL

Edited April 28, 2018 by Wings

[meowmommy]

1 hour ago, Wings said:

Just wait until Laurie sashays into my rifle cite.

Laurie.  Orange and yellow, check.  Talk to the HOs like they're kindergarten dropouts, check.  Blow 95% of the budget on fabric, check.  Wear the word "fabulous" into the ground, check.  Never do anything really horrible but never do anything really wonderful, either, check.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

[Mabinogia]

1 hour ago, meowmommy said:

Talk to the HOs like they're kindergarten dropouts, check

HAHAHAHAAHA. OMG she totally does that, doesn't she? I found Laurie very cloying. I sometimes liked her work but I couldn't stand watching her episodes. 

[athousandclowns]

9 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

I watched the episode where Genevieve did a bedroom, while Frank tried to update a 70s era kitchen.  I thought Genevieve did a wonderful job.  They made the homeowner a wooden headboard that look incredible, and the bedroom looked nice.  Frank's kitchen was another story.  He painted the walls in a nice warm color, but rather than replacing the linoleum floor, he painted it brown with white lines to make it appear the floor was tiled, and tried to put painted on "stones" on the counters and back splash.  All I can say is if the kitchen was a high traffic area, Frank's painted floor was going to wear away quickly and look ridiculous, and the curtains they chose for the large kitchen window were just awful.  On the positive side, the homeowner appeared to just love Frank.         

That was the worst window treatment I have ever seen  and there was not a surface he didn't take a brush to. The kitchen cabinets had wear to them so let's paints some vines all over. The owners of both places were very happy. 

[Wings]

2 hours ago, meowmommy said:

Laurie.  Orange and yellow, check.  Talk to the HOs like they're kindergarten dropouts, check.  Blow 95% of the budget on fabric, check.  Wear the word "fabulous" into the ground, check.  Never do anything really horrible but never do anything really wonderful, either, check.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

Love it!

[meep.meep]

The worst Laurie episode I remember is when she spent $900 out of the $1000 on a single chair.  And the homeowners hated the chair.

[txhorns79]

Quote

That was the worst window treatment I have ever seen  and there was not a surface he didn't take a brush to. The kitchen cabinets had wear to them so let's paints some vines all over. The owners of both places were very happy. 

Yeah, I thought the kitchen homeowners didn't get a chance to really think through how Frank's changes would work in reality.  Essentially, this is the problem of trying to do a substantial kitchen renovation in two days with $1,000,00.  You are able to make some cosmetic changes, but when done cheaply, those cosmetic changes just end up making things worse.  I would bet within six months of the project, they had to rip out of the floor and put new linoleum down, get a new table and perhaps even replace the kitchen counters. 

Edited April 30, 2018 by txhorns79

[meowmommy]

20 minutes ago, txhorns79 said:

Yeah, I thought the kitchen homeowners didn't get a chance to really think through how Frank's changes would work in reality.  Essentially, this is the problem of trying to do a substantial kitchen renovation in two days with $1,000,00. 

It's just frustrating watching Frank do faux finishes and leave floors concrete or slap stick-on tile over linoleum and supposedly finish early each time (no wonder!  no real work!) when Vern on the same budget is putting down wood floors and replacing countertops.  Even Doug had his signature venetian plaster treatments and could do a good room when he wanted to.  Frank's work was probably more ok when faux treatments were in vogue; they haven't held up well over time at all.  The kitchen he did where he blew a huge part of the budget on a new dishwasher -- that the HOs then would have to figure out how or pay to have installed -- while the rest of the kitchen still looked like ass, was just lazy as hell.  

I still mostly like the Mexican kitchen, though.

[Destiny007]

Awww!  I loved Frank!  I still do.  Alot of his artwork was awesome (minus the chickens).  He was one of my favorites.  I didn't personally like everything he did, but he at least always tried to consider the homeowners and he usually listened to the people he was working with (unlike Doug or Hildi).  I loved the monkey desk he and Ty did for the little girl's room.  However, I agree it didn't work in that particular room.  The monkey desk needed a solid color wall.  Vern was my other favorite.  I would be okay with anyone other than Doug or Hildi doing a room for me.  Although, in the reruns I find myself liking more of Doug's rooms than Hildi's.

[vibeology]

1 hour ago, Destiny007 said:

Awww!  I loved Frank!  I still do.  Alot of his artwork was awesome (minus the chickens).  He was one of my favorites.  I didn't personally like everything he did, but he at least always tried to consider the homeowners and he usually listened to the people he was working with (unlike Doug or Hildi).  I loved the monkey desk he and Ty did for the little girl's room.  However, I agree it didn't work in that particular room.  The monkey desk needed a solid color wall.  Vern was my other favorite.  I would be okay with anyone other than Doug or Hildi doing a room for me.  Although, in the reruns I find myself liking more of Doug's rooms than Hildi's.

Doug's love of blues, greys and blacks put him ahead of the trends compared to some of the other designers who were more interested in earth tones. So many of his rooms look fresh to our modern eyes but everyone back then thought he was nuts when he'd pull out grey paint. For example, if you took that prisoner of love room took out the prison elements (the mural the urinals, the window bars and the wardrobe), you'd be left with a fairly chic grey bedroom with the one accent wall that people would live in today. Where Doug went wrong was he was TV savvy and played up themes to the max when a hint of a theme would be more than enough. About half of Doug's rooms were good and really would only need small changes, like any normal designers rooms.

Hildi, there's no excuse for. She made ugly and impractical rooms on purpose because she knew it would be good TV. You'll never convince me she thought the cardboard room would be anything but a disaster. Or the hay, or the flowers, or the furniture on the ceiling.

[LexieLily]

Quote

And that's the thing about Hildi.  If every single room she did was a POS, she'd be a Kia, relegated to the ashcan of designer obscurity.  But she has talent, and she is perfectly capable of executing a good looking room when she wants to, and she has done some really nice rooms.  But apparently she decided somewhere along the way that any publicity is better than no publicity, and being famous, even if it's for being an asshole, is more important to her than caring about her clients.  People who've never seen Trading Spaces know who Hildi Santo-Tomas is.  Bully for her.

@meowmommy wrote this in the episode thread and it made me think about how Hildi pretty much disappeared after Trading Spaces and according to what I found online, spent her post-Trading Spaces time in France with her husband being a florist, of all things. Maybe she was inspired by the thousands of flowers she put on the walls of that bathroom. But it surprised me that she never wanted a show of her own like Doug did (he had a few over the years), or tried judging Design Star like Gen and Vern. Laurie, I'm sure, stepped out of the limelight on purpose to raise her babies and I don't think Frank ever particularly wanted the limelight in the first place. Hildi could have translated her Trading Spaces infamy into something. 

[txhorns79]

Quote

Doug's love of blues, greys and blacks put him ahead of the trends compared to some of the other designers who were more interested in earth tones. So many of his rooms look fresh to our modern eyes but everyone back then thought he was nuts when he'd pull out grey paint.

I watched an episode with Doug and Edward, where Doug turned a homeowner's warm-ish quasi-living room into an austere, dark living room mostly devoid of color except for some paintings on the wall and purple/blue pillows with this terrible ceiling treatment that Paige hilariously said was going to be a dust trap.  It looked like the kind of place that might be appropriate to either commit suicide or find a dead body.  I have no idea if the room even made sense in terms of the rest of the house, and the homeowners were shocked by it.  My only point being that Doug's love of those colors may not look as bad today, but Doug's main problem was not caring about the needs of the homeowners or the aesthetic of the overall house.   

[RedbirdNelly]

On ‎4‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 10:25 AM, txhorns79 said:

I watched the episode where Genevieve did a bedroom, while Frank tried to update a 70s era kitchen.  I thought Genevieve did a wonderful job.  They made the homeowner a wooden headboard that look incredible, and the bedroom looked nice.  Frank's kitchen was another story.  He painted the walls in a nice warm color, but rather than replacing the linoleum floor, he painted it brown with white lines to make it appear the floor was tiled, and tried to put painted on "stones" on the counters and back splash.  All I can say is if the kitchen was a high traffic area, Frank's painted floor was going to wear away quickly and look ridiculous, and the curtains they chose for the large kitchen window were just awful.  On the positive side, the homeowner appeared to just love Frank.         

I just watched this one last night. So. Much. Painting. I took one look at that kitchen and thought "oh no" at the start--it needed a lot of redoing but what can you do with $1000? So maybe try another room. I really liked the homeowners though. Both pairs really seemed to have a good time and embraced the experience. Even though I hated all the Frank painting, the home owner seemed so happy. So it was nice that way.

On ‎7‎/‎26‎/‎2017 at 8:28 PM, auntjess said:

 

What was that strange town makeover show that Gen was in?

That was Town Haul. To my knowledge, only one season.

[Ubiquitous]

On ‎4‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 7:35 PM, meowmommy said:

Laurie.  Orange and yellow, check.  Talk to the HOs like they're kindergarten dropouts, check.  Blow 95% of the budget on fabric, check.  Wear the word "fabulous" into the ground, check.  Never do anything really horrible but never do anything really wonderful, either, check.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

I remember Laurie overusing "amaaaaazzzzing", not "fabulous".

[roughing it]

On ‎10‎/‎31‎/‎2018 at 1:56 PM, Ubiquitous said:

I remember Laurie overusing "amaaaaazzzzing", not "fabulous".

...as she lovingly fondled the fabrics.

[joanne3482]

On 4/26/2018 at 6:45 PM, Wings said:

Just watched 2 more horrors.  Doug did a brown room with banquette with varying shades of lavender pillows.   Edward a Moroccan dining room.  Both were grim.   I remember now that we really didn't see many descent rooms.  

So in anticipation of the new season dropping next week, they've begun rerunning old episodes again and this one came up.  That gray/brown room was not good. And yesterday they had the Hildi bathroom with flowers, also not good. I can't even watch that one. 

They also showed one I don't remember seeing the first time at all (not that that's saying much...) but it was in Rhode Island and it was a woman who owned the house and rented the 3rd floor to upstairs tenants. Vern did a very feng shui room and upstairs Hildi did something that wasn't horrible.  I was a little bugged by Vern only because the woman didn't get her little reading nook, although to be fair I'm not sure there was enough space in that room for a 'reading nook.' 

[LexieLily]

Alert. Alert! Crying Pam's episode is rerunning Monday 3/11 at 8:00 AM.

[Maverick]

I caught the last half of a Doug/Vern episode in Orlando.  Typical episode with two couples trading.  Bit at the reveal, a third woman who was pregnant joined one of the couples.   At first I thought she was the home owner and someone was subbing for her but the other woman talked about what Doug was doing to her house during the show.   What was the deal there?

[DVDFreaker]

6 hours ago, Maverick said:

I caught the last half of a Doug/Vern episode in Orlando.  Typical episode with two couples trading.  Bit at the reveal, a third woman who was pregnant joined one of the couples.   At first I thought she was the home owner and someone was subbing for her but the other woman talked about what Doug was doing to her house during the show.   What was the deal there?

The pregnant woman is the homeowner and the woman subbing for her is her sister so she talked about what Doug is doing to her house 

[proserpina65]

On ‎04‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 3:29 PM, vibeology said:

For example, if you took that prisoner of love room took out the prison elements (the mural the urinals, the window bars and the wardrobe), you'd be left with a fairly chic grey bedroom with the one accent wall that people would live in today.

Would still have looked like prison to me.  I hate grey walls.